


Today is a gift

by elysiontower



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Background Character Death, Birthday, M/M, Minor Gueira/Meis (Promare), Minor Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos, Trans Galo Thymos, also trans lio. just assume hes trans in anything i write, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 07:20:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21334387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elysiontower/pseuds/elysiontower
Summary: Contrary to popular belief, Galo isn't big on birthdays.
Relationships: Gueira/Meis (Promare), Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 17
Kudos: 229





	Today is a gift

Burning Rescue was bustling with work. Reconstruction here, putting out some accidental fires there, life never seemed to give the firefighters a break. That was just fine, though! Galo's forte was keeping himself busy, especially by helping others - if it meant he was doing good, then that was all the kindling he needed to let his soul burn. It was what he was made for. 

It was that drive that allowed the months to breeze by after the Parnassus incident. Almost a full year had passed, and so much had changed: Lio, Gueira, and Meis joined the team, a large portion of the downtown area had been reconstructed, and young candidates were already campaigning for Promepolis’s first ever election for governor. They all did their best to ensure that any orphaned children went to responsible, loving homes, and plenty of them have started school again. Galo couldn’t be more proud of how much they’ve accomplished - it was really starting to feel like a whole new city!

Maybe all that work was why Galo hadn’t thought to check the Burning Rescue calendar events. 

“Is your birthday this month?” Lio brought up at lunch one day, speaking between bites of his sandwich. “It’s on the calendar, but you never said anything.”

The fork with his salad paused before it reached his mouth, and the blue haired man thought for a moment. “What day is it today?”

His partner answered.

“...Huh. Yeah, then, it’s next Thursday,” Galo confirmed, returning to eating. He hadn’t thought about his birthday… well, since his last one. There had been so much to do, so many people who needed the time and attention more than him. 

Lio huffed a bit. “For someone usually so full of himself, you don’t seem that excited.”

“I’m not full of myself, I’m just confident! Nothing wrong with that!” he shot back quickly, before going back to the immediate topic. “But really, I just kinda forgot. A lot’s been going on, y’know?”

A nod. “Fair enough, I guess.” That was the end of that conversation, and their lunch break moved on from the topic. 

Only for that lunch break, though.

As if suddenly everyone was aware, the rest of the week ended up bombarding Galo with questions - was he doing anything for it? Did he want anything? Were there any plans for that weekend? By that point, his only plans were getting work done, since they all seemed so intent on distracting him from it. Galo had to break at some point.

So he did. 

“Why are you all so fixated on this?” 

“On what?” Lucia asked, popping out of her control center within one of the trucks.

“My birthday.” He and Varys had been helping her test out some new equipment, mostly for scaling tall buildings to rescue people trapped on higher floors, when the taller man had sprung the tired question of his plans. “Why do you all care so much? You weren’t this pushy about Remi’s birthday.”

“We already knew his plans, that’s why. You keep dodging the question.” Lucia’s tone was matter-of-fact, which he hated, but Galo knew she was right. That day, after all of them got a couple of drinks, Remi insisted that he had to go home for an “early shift” the next day. Galo discovered that was a lie when the teal-haired man came in at two in the afternoon, vaguely smelling of garbage. He didn’t ask. That was beside the point, anyways.

“You can’t blame us for wanting to celebrate your first birthday with us, can you?” Varys added. “What do you normally do?"

Galo recalled his time with different foster families: the nicer ones would get him a small cake, and he appreciated that, but plenty of others just never remembered. Eventually he wondered if it was normal for birthdays to mean nothing.

The only exception was his 18th birthday, when Kray himself gave him an apartment to himself. Aside from funding his transition, it very well may have been the only real good thing Kray had done for him.

But maybe, considering how far it was from downtown, it was just another plan to get Galo out of his sight. He wouldn't be surprised anymore. 

"Nothing, I guess?" he shrugged, finally. "It's never really been special. A cake at most." 

Varys and Lucia's eyes widened slightly, and they exchanged looks. "What?"

"I figured you'd be all for this kinda stuff," explained the scientist. "The idea of having a day all to yourself seems right up your alley."

"My ego isn't that big."

Lucia raised an eyebrow. Flicking her on the head with his finger, Varys continued. "Your parents never celebrated with you?"

Oh. 

...Oh.

"I don't remember." 

"You don't?"

"Of course not! I was, like, seven or something when everything happened. No shit I'm not going to remember stuff that far back."

"...Shit, right," he sighed. "I'm sorry"

Before Galo could shrug it off, the blond girl in front of him hummed. The lollipop in her mouth muffled her voice when she said, "Weird. I still remember stuff from preschool."

"You're the weird one."

"Whatever, don't you at least have pictures from back then?"

If there were, clearly no one thought to give them to him.

"It was a fire, Lucia. That shit burns up fastest."

Galo felt like he was supposed to be the one pouting, not her. Still, there she was visibly frustrated… on his behalf? Or maybe just because he was being fresh with her. It wasn't as if she was the one getting grilled about her history and her dead relatives.

Though to be fair to her, he guessed she did have a point. No matter how old he was getting, Galo still figured… yeah, those were seven years of his life just gone. As far as his brain was concerned, he was basically born at eight years old. It was hard not to wonder what he missed in all that time.

A pat on his shoulder snapped him out of his thoughts.

"It's alright, rookie. Don't stress too much about it."

"I'm not stressing?"

"Lucia just waved her hand in front of your face and you didn't move."

Did she? The tiny engineer sat arms-crossed in front of him, glaring. So maybe she did.

"Forget it," Galo groaned. "Let's just get back to work!"

The three of them did, but not without the blonde rolling her eyes at him. He thought he heard her mutter something, but pushed it to the back of his mind as he got back into the prototype armor. He realized something else, instead.

"Hey, wait, don't call me a rookie!"

Varys laughed at him.

\--

Was it weird that everyone's questions died down after that conversation? Maybe, but Galo was just grateful for the ability to work in peace. It was ridiculous to try and think about something as tiny as a birthday when there were people homeless, or starving, or being persecuted for a fire they didn't even have anymore. He poured as much free time as he could into helping the Burnish community, making sure they had proper food and roofs over their heads or making sure the kids were adjusting well. Those were much more important tasks to handle, even if they weren't related to Burning Rescue - Galo knew he, and society as a whole, owed it to them to help them heal.

So then came the dreaded Thursday. 

It was… surprisingly routine.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but really, what was he expecting? Galo didn't recall what an actual birthday party was like, so it wasn't as if he knew what to anticipate. At most, people passing him by wished him a happy birthday. The only thing extra was a trip to the pizzeria, which had been physically spared from last year's incident. The owner and cook were freed from prison, and the latter had been given a prosthetic hand. It made Galo feel proud, admittedly, to see them back on their feet.

Seeing a year of work pay off was a good birthday present on its own, he thought.

Even the night was relaxing. It was just him and Lio, sprawled on each other on the couch watching a new movie Galo had picked out. At some point they had stopped paying attention, chatting quietly through it with pauses for the occasional kiss - he wondered for a moment why his partner was so much more affectionate than usual, but the thought died out in his head as the film went on. Before long, it was over, and Galo turned off the TV. How could he have it in himself to move, after all that, and with Lio now sleeping with his head on his chest? That'd be far too mean to both of them.

He wasn't sure what birthdays were supposed to be like, but as he drifted off to sleep with a full stomach and his lover curled up with him, he figured this wasn't a bad one at all.

\---

Of course everything returned to normal the day after, as if people hadn't been bugging him the whole week leading up to it. Galo wasn't complaining - it made that Friday significantly easier to work through without the incessant questions or comments. He could even call it refreshing to be at a construction site and have people ask about his day, about Lio, about the plans for the job, anything but his birthday. Was that weird? He wouldn't know. 

The next day, however, seemed to pick up the pace. Every second he was done with one task, he didn't even get back to HQ before there was something else for him to handle. Checking in with construction teams here, getting a cat out of a tree there - hey, that old lady wants to cross the street! - he couldn't seem to catch a break. Just when Galo was on his way back to HQ again, some of the Burnish kids he recognized wanted to say hi to him; how could he say no? So he walked them back home, his bike at his side, because even if they wanted to ride it he didn't have helmets or seats for them. Maybe some other time! Not really. He was not letting children on a motorcycle.

Christ, it was getting late. Were it not for stopping at HQ in the morning to use the locker rooms, he would have gone all day without seeing his coworkers. Yeah he got the occasional call from Lucia between random assignments from Ignis, but that didn't count. Even Lio had left the house earlier, but at least he had heard about that in advance. Something about helping Gueira and Meis with running errands? Whatever, it was definitely important if it was him. 

Finally, at nearly eight at night, the fireman could actually relax. It was completely dark by the time Galo got to the station, only to be met by Aina texting at the garage door. She definitely noticed him approaching, but her eyes went back to her phone quickly before she waved at him. What was that about?

"Hey! You, uh, finally finish everything?" 

"You say that like I'm the only one who's been working his ass off today," he complained.

"Hu- what? Haha, no! No, no, no," she stammered. "Everyone else uh, got back just now!"

Okay, there was definitely something up. 

"You are like, really out of it. Did something happen?"

"Not at all, why do you ask?" Aina blatantly lied. 

There was no way Galo was going to back down from this. She was obviously hiding something, and if she thought he was too dumb to notice, then he was going to beat her at her own game. "Well, if you're so sure, why don't you let me in?" 

"In ... where?"

Oh for fuck's sake.

"You know, the garage? Because I need to put my bike away?"

"What garage?"

"Aina."

Her lips were pursed into a tight line, like she had some goddamn frog in her mouth. 

"You sure talk a lot of shit about me being an idiot for someone who just said that," he sighed.

"Well," she huffed, finally breaking out of her awkward expression, "maybe it takes an idiot to know one!"

...Wait.

"You're calling yourself stupid?"

Aina took a deep breath. The realization on her face shifted to pain. "I am, aren't I."

The shrill chime of her ringtone came right at that moment. Galo still wasn't sure what that awful noise was, but he was thankful that it interrupted… whatever it was that was going on.

She picked up without a second thought, but before she could even say a word, Galo could clearly hear Lucia yelling from the other end of the line, "Quit looking like a dipshit and get Galo in here before Gueira gives himself third degree burns!"

That was likely the most troubling statement Galo had heard that day. "Why is Gueira being allowed near fire?" 

"Not important!" No, that was definitely important. "Come on, everyone's waiting."

With that said, Aina clicked the button on the garage for it to open. From what he could see, everything was completely dark inside as the doors slowly rose up. Something in his stomach tightened, like he was going to be met with pure disaster once he entered the building. 

...The doors were open, and nothing was wrong; everything was as it should be, with the trucks, cars, and bikes stationed where they normally were. Galo took the chance to park his own bike, but the anxiety in his gut didn't leave him as he followed Aina through the door to the common area. 

Everything was just as quiet and dark in the common area. Was there an outage? Was everyone alright? What-

He heard Aina shift and flick on the light switch. 

The moment everything lit up, streamers were in the air. Tiny horns were going off. And Galo heard the chorus of the Burning Rescue team declare,

"Happy Birthday!"

H-

Wh-

Ah?

Huh?

Galo stood in place, staring at the group in complete shock. Blinking through his confusion, he made various attempts to speak as his friends and coworkers looked at him expectantly. 

Ultimately, all he could get out was, "My birthday was two days ago?"

Lio was the first to speak up. With a chuckle, he answered, "Yeah, duh, but we figured it wouldn't be a surprise if we did it the day of."

"It also just works out better to have a party on the weekend," Remi shrugged. 

Nothing in front of him was processing in Galo's head. There was a banner, the table was out with a brightly-colored cloth over it, and additional streamers were thrown around the place. They set up all of that for him? "How did you guys even do all this in one day?"

All eyes moved to Ignis. 

"You made me do all that work to stall for time?!"

"Yep." Ignis nodded without another word. Of course.

Running his fingers through his hair to ground himself, Galo sighed. "I can't even believe this… you guys are ridiculous. Seriously, didn't I say it wasn't a big deal?"

Aina pat him on the back as she passed him. "You need to raise your standards, pal."

Oh, he needed to raise his standards? Miss "what garage". 

"Hey, hey, why are we all standing around like idiots? Aren't we gonna eat?"

Gueira's shouting, which Galo noted quickly was emphasized by a bandaged hand pumping up in the air, reminded him of how hungry he'd been all day. He wasn't about to complain no matter what kind of food they had.

Which, astonishingly, seemed to be actually cooked with the station's kitchen. The scents of fresh food - rice, meat, seasoned vegetables - immediately hit him.

"Consider this all an apology for keeping you out so late," Meis laughed as he set a pot of rice onto the table. "Boss suggested you'd be craving a meal right about now."

God, Lio was so perfect. 

"There's plenty, so feel free to go wild," commented the shorter blond. "Though maybe save some room for dessert."

"You don't have to worry one bit," Galo beamed back.

\---

Galo had to be obscenely impressed. He knew that Meis joked a lot about being Gueira's trophy wife (which the latter heavily denied), but combined with the recipes Lio got from him and that Varys brought from home? There was no way an angel didn't descend in that kitchen.

And, of course, a demon too, since Gueira had to watch the pans while Meis went to use the bathroom. So that was the short story for why his hand was fucked up.

The cake was fantastic too - apparently Lio had found a red velvet recipe in one of his cook books that worked out perfectly. Who cares that it was store-bought icing when everything else already had so much time put into it? It tasted great all the same.

After the earlier incident, no one was trusting Gueira with the matches when they were lighting the birthday candles. Then they were all singing to him, and while he felt a little out of place, Galo hoped that the candlelight wasn't enough to illuminate the tears in his eyes. 

He was finishing up his fifth piece of cake while on the couch (God damn that shit was good) when Aina lightly bopped him on the head from behind. "Don't clock out yet big guy, there's still presents."

Galo nearly choked. "Presents? Like this whole thing itself wasn't a present?"

"Burning Rescue doesn't half-ass things," Varys assured him. "If we're going to give you a birthday to remember, we're going all the way."

"You guys…" Damn it. The plan was that he wasn't going to cry in front of these idiots.

"With all that said," in came Remi with a small, gaudily-wrapped box in his hands, "I'm going first. Happy birthday, Galo."

The man handed Galo the box, which felt surprisingly heavy in his hands, and he was left staring at it for a bit with widened eyes and a brain full of T.V. static. "You can open it now, you know."

"Oh." Given that cue, he went for the edges of the paper to unravel it from the box, careful to minimize damages where the tape was. It felt rude to just rip into it.

He was suddenly aware of two dips in the couch on both sides of him - Lucia to his right and Lio on his left. Was everyone else watching him do this too?

After a short moment, he got the wrapping off and- Holy shit. "This figure isn't even made anymore! How the fuck?"

Remi gave a tiny huff as he grinned. "I have connections."

"No, seriously, last time I saw one online it was up for thousands of dollars and the bid was still going. How-"

"Connections. Anyways, do you like it?"

Ignoring how weirdly insistent the man was, he could barely believe he was being asked that. "Are you shitting me? I love it! Thank you so much."

"We're not done just yet," Aina piped up from behind the couch. "My turn."

She reached over his shoulder and handed him… another wrapped box-like thing, but this one was thinner - he could pretty much already tell it was a disc case. 

Repeating the same process as before, he opened up the paper. "Wait, you got-"

"Yep!" she nodded. "I got myself a copy of the game too, so hit me up if you ever wanna play together!"

Galo nodded in response, and the two of them bumped fists, Lucia ducking her head under them with a quick "Hey!" before Varys approached. 

"Did you really all get me something?"

"Like I said, we don't half-ass things here.”

Varys said that as he presented his gift to Galo. "You liked the food today, right?"

"You bet, why do you ask?"

"Why don't you find out?"

As it turned out, the present in question happened to be two different cookbooks - one of which he knew to have some of his favorite recipes. The other seemed to be completely new. 

"Now you can make some of it yourself whenever you want," Varys chuckled. "The other one's just a new release, so I figured you'd like to try it."

Each of these gifts had made Galo feel warmer and warmer. It was a comfort, knowing the people he cared for and worked with remembered such things about him and… actually thought about him. He'd never asked them to do any of this; they just wanted to.

He was still looking through the books when he felt a tap on his shoulder from Lio, who then pointed up at Gueira and Meis. The two of them held their wrapped package together, holding it up to him expectantly. Only when he took it did Gueira say, "This one's more homemade, but we think you'll like it."

Galo unfurled the gift paper to find a large leather jacket - and on the back, "MAD BURNISH" was written out in small pink and blue gemstones. Above the lettering was even an embroidered flame patch. They made this themselves?

"Since you're officially dating our son," Galo could hear Lio's embarrassed groan at Meis's words, "we decided this was the most appropriate way to welcome you into the family."

"You weren't ever technically Burnish," Gueira added, "but you had Boss's flame for a while, so that counts for something, right? Whatever, try on the jacket!"

He figured Lio had some part in this, given that the sizing was just right - loose around the sleeves, tighter around the torso. "What the hell, this is great! I should totally get you guys some matching ones."

"Way ahead of you." They both turned around and showed off the patches on their jackets - Meis's flame was blue and Gueira's was red. "We made Boss one too."

Lio unzipped his Burning Rescue coat to reveal… another matching jacket underneath. 

"You guys are committed," Galo mused.

"Mad Burnish doesn't half-ass things either."

Clearly.

"I sure would hope not."

He's been "welcomed into the family", huh?

In a swift motion, Lucia disrupted his thoughts by whipping out a laptop from nowhere. "Alrighty, now that that's all out of the way, time for my present." The grin on her face as she spoke was enough to drive fear straight into Galo's heart. No way was this so-called "present" not going to murder him in his sleep. 

Or so he thought, but the USB drive she held up to him seemed harmless enough.

The girl placed her computer on Galo's lap. "Plug it in, you'll see what it is." 

So he did. Opening up the folder and the first file within, he was met with a photograph of a couple he'd never seen before. They were at a restaurant he didn't recognize, and while the woman's grin was wide, the man wore a softer, more subdued smile. He could only guess a waiter took this photo. Galo stared at the photograph for a while in silence, trying to process why he was being shown this.

"Keep goin'," Lucia encouraged him after a bit.

Once again, he did. After several more near-identical pictures of what seemed to be attempts at a good shot (funny, he had that same habit), the next new photo was at the Promepolis Zoo. The woman was laughing as a giraffe was eating out of her hand. Next photo was at a petting zoo, with goats climbing on and over the man while an old sheep attempted to eat his companion's long, blue-tinted hair. They were both laughing in that image.

Galo kept looking. Beach photos with friends, a shot of the man asleep with a sunburnt belly. Amusement park dates. Anniversaries. Wedding. Honeymoon. More anniversaries. 

Something clenched in Galo's stomach as he scrolled through the photos, realization dawning on him. He didn't realize he was crying until he felt a finger wipe tears from his face - he turned his head, and the sympathetic smile he got from Lio was more than enough to confirm his suspicions. This had been planned.

"Oh my god." Yeah, he needed a moment. Galo placed his hand on Lio's, keeping it there, and took a deep breath. He felt a small pat on his back, likely from Lucia.

"Do you want us to leave?" he hears Aina ask from behind him. "You can look through these by yourself later if-"

"No, no, no I…" Galo interrupted her, and then took another breath. "I wanna do this now."

He could do this. Squeezing Lio's hand momentarily for support, the fireman kept going through what he recognized, finally, as his parents' old photos. 

There were more dates - holidays, casual outings, each others' birthdays, and even their relatives' birthdays. Even just days where it they thought the other looked nice. Surprisingly, despite his father's less expressive exterior, most of the photos were taken by him. As he went on, he found progress photos of his mother: seven weeks, five months, eight months pregnant. Then the actual delivery - he skimmed over those photos. They were gross and kind of unnecessary.

And then- God, yeah. Galo didn't need to look in a mirror to know who that baby was.

"You were so…" Meis started.

"So what?" he pushed; even he could hear his own voice crack.

"Y'know," the man gestured at the screen, "Bald."

That got a laugh out of everyone. Galo hadn't realized how quiet the room had been until it suddenly wasn't. He much preferred it like this - silence didn't come naturally to their group, and he hoped there never came a time when it would.

"God, Lucia, these are so…" he huffed, still laughing, yet barely keeping himself together. "How did you even find these?"

She smirked at him, but there was a fondness on her face that made it clear she wasn't joking around. "I figured your parents must have uploaded some stuff online, so I dug around a bit."

"You still went out of the way to do this, though," Galo said, letting go of Lio's hand to grab Lucia in a hug, "so thanks. Seriously."

While the tiny scientist generally hated his grip, today she elected to go easy on him and return it. "Happy birthday, ya big dummy. You deserve it."

The blue-haired man hugged her just a little tighter before letting go. "You guys are fucking ridiculous." 

"We're not even done," Lio said. "I still have to give you my present."

"You too?!"

"The hell do you mean? You thought your own boyfriend wouldn't get you something?"

"I wasn't thinking in general!"

The muttered "nothing new there" he heard from Remi came as no surprise to anyone. 

Regardless of what he thought before, Lio was definitely holding up a box to him. "Open it."

It was a lot heavier than Galo thought it'd be, so he gently placed it on his lap before unwrapping it with the same care and respect he had shown the rest of his gifts. That was the least he could do for them, anyways.

And so, unraveled from the festive paper, sat the brand new, untouched package for a camera.

Not that it was noticeably top of the line or anything extreme like that, but it was clearly higher quality than an average camera. Galo probably didn't know most of what the functions on it did, and he was going to have a hell of a long time reading the instruction manual to find out.

"I realize that this won't really… bring back the memories you've lost from back then," his partner began, "but at the very least, you can keep up with new ones, right? With all of us."

Galo was astonished. What the hell did he ever do to deserve so many loving people in his life? 

The embrace he held Lio in was warm, and he knew he was crying again when he uttered his gratitude towards the shorter man. "I can't believe any of you guys, honestly." 

"You better get used to it, dear," he felt Lio chuckle under him, the latter's arms wrapped around him in kind. "You're really stuck with us now."

"That's the opposite of a problem."

Someone behind them cleared their throat. Pulling himself away just enough to look at the source, Varys, Galo maintained his arm around his partner. "You gonna try that thing out or what? No time like the present." 

"Oh! That's a good idea!"

Tearing open the soft cardboard, the fireman looked over the manual within - yeah, no, he wasn't getting anything it was telling him. 

"Man, I just want to take a group pic and instead this thing's formatted like a UFO." He made no show of hiding his frustration, because it was just a camera! Even Lucia's mechs were simpler than this! What did half of these symbols even mean? "D'you think this has a timer so I can set it on something?"

Lucia grabbed the instruction manual. "Try setting it with that," she suggested, pointing to one of the keys on the side. There it was.

"Why not just get one of us to take it?" Meis asked. Galo shook his head furiously in response. 

"You wouldn't end up in the photo if you did that, and that'd suck. I want us all in it." It goes unsaid, but they understand. He wants proof that they were all there together.

The black-haired man smiled, satisfied with that answer. "Fair enough."

Dragging the fold-up table to be in front of the couch, the camera is placed atop it with the timer set. Galo settled himself back between Lio and Lucia, with his arm wrapped around the former's shoulders. He felt Aina rest her arms near his head - looking back, Remi and Ignis had gone to stand to her left, and Varys to her right. Gueira and Meis had situated themselves next to their former Boss as well. 

It didn't take any forcing for Galo to let out his brightest smile. 

It also wasn't the only photo they took. Old habits die hard, and Galo felt like this was one he could afford to keep.

\--

"Say, Lio," the fireman spoke up during the cleanup. "When's your birthday?"

The ex-Burnish smirked. "Maybe you should check the calendar."

So that was how it was, huh? 

Gueira piped up from the other side of the room. "It's next month!"

"Damn it, Gueira." 

"So soon, huh?" Galo laughed. "I better get planning ahead of time then."

**Author's Note:**

> lio: babe happy one year!  
galo: im 21?
> 
> anyways i have a lot of feelings abt galo. whatse up i care him. this turned out to be an absolute monster of a fic and it's widely unbeta'd so please feel free to totally decimate me in the comments


End file.
